Still, reeling over from Tuesday? Not sure if it was all a fever dream? The first debate for the Presidential election took place this past Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio and it was a night filled with chaos. If you tuned in to see how each candidate would handle himself over the other, then you got what you came for but if you tuned in to learn about the future of this country, you might want to try next time. The moderator for this debate was Chris Wallace, a man with years of experience in asking the hard-hitting questions. In this debate, however, he was the debater as much as the moderator. In the first 15 minutes of the debate, Trump had come in hot and saw to it that he had the final say in each debate segment through countless interruptions. This left Wallace at the disapproval of many for his lack of control among the candidates.
Both candidates came out, and the timer went off. Chris Wallace had questions separated into six segments: The Trump and Biden Records, The Supreme Court, Covid-19, The Economy, Race and Violence in our Cities, and The Integrity of the Election. It started with the elephant in the room, the records. The night before the debate, Trump’s 2017 federal income tax came out and revealed a payment of only $750. Nope, that is not a typo and also not a million dollars, as the president said he paid when asked on the debate stage. And honestly, I think if Trump’s tax returns came out to $0, it would’ve been slightly more entertaining than insulting.
The topic then moved on to the news of Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. However, the two candidates quickly changed gears over to healthcare and the efforts of the Trump Administration to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Biden attacked Trump for his efforts to extinguish healthcare for Americans with preexisting conditions and for essentially reversing everything that Justice Ginsburg stood for. Trump counterattacked this by accusing Biden’s support for the Medicare for All plan. Trump didn’t speak to his promise 4 years ago on coming up with a comprehensive plan to replace Obamacare and Biden spoke on his support for giving people the option to enroll in a “public option” plan, not Medicare for All.
Each candidate gets 2 minutes to answer on his own and then 15 minutes for an open-ended debate. Between these 1 minute answers from both candidates, the rest of the time involved a lot of name-calling and sharp personal digs at one another. Trump’s comment about injecting bleach came back to haunt him on the debate stage as Biden ridiculed him, “This is the same man who said it would be gone by Easter. This is the same man who said it would disappear like a miracle. This is the man who said inject bleach in your arm.”. Trump defended himself by saying he was being sarcastic, because of course when people want to hear jokes and not rational and logical information, the first place they turn to is the presidential press briefing. In the meantime, a guy watching the debate, who actually did inject himself with bleach went (*insert the Michael Scott “I’m fine” meme here*).
Wallace brought the candidates’ attention back to the next topic by asking about the actions taken to handle COVID. Biden said Trump warned the American people too late, at a time when things were already very bad. Trump proceeded to brag about how big of a turnout his rallies have been, which have gathered about ten thousand people, compared to Biden’s. Trump made a point to emphasize they were held outdoors which might be a valid reason for someone throwing a baby shower with family and not a campaign rally filled with thousands of strangers. Biden decided to take the personal approach and face the camera to speak to the American people about the hardships faced this year. Was him facing the camera a tactical move? I don’t know but it sure got to me.
The 90-minute discussion covered the status of the economy and the decision to reopen America. It quickly moved on to the state of the economy even before the pandemic and there was a lot of “Look at how well I left this country and you destroyed it.” and “look at how bad you left me this country and how well I boosted it.”. Before the debate came to a close, race and violence were discussed. This past summer, countless disturbing videos of displays of racism circulated. The president was asked to condemn the proud boys, a group of white supremacists, to which he said “Stand back and stand by.”. These words were circulating the internet all night as millions of people watched their president say the worst thing he possibly could’ve said before immediately arguing that violence in the U.S. is a leftwing problem.
I don’t know who you could say necessarily won the debate unless it’s in terms of how much one can talk over the other. Overall, this debate was a mess, I hope Chris Wallace is doing okay and I think the next moderator for the debate should highly consider the option of cutting off mics as a solution to minimize interruptions. The next debate on this American horror story will be Oct. 7 for the vice-presidential candidates and Oct. 15 for the presidential. On a serious note, remember it’s okay to take a deep breath and switch the channel. Also…Vote, vote, vote!! Make your vote count and voice heard.